350PDX Weekly Update – Three major pipeline wins in 48 hours – July 8 2020

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Hi everyone,

It has been a very bad week for oil and gas pipelines across the country, with three of the most prominent projects being cancelled or seriously delayed. Each project has faced massive grassroots resistance for years and these victories would not have been possible without the direct action from indigenous communities and environmental justice activists. It’s time for Jordan Cove LNG in Southern Oregon to be cancelled next!

Atlantic Coast Pipeline Cancelled: Dominion Energy and Duke Energy canceled the proposed 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline Sunday. The construction of the pipeline was once considered a near-certainty, but sustained resistance by climate, environmental justice, and property rights activists pushed the project three years behind schedule and nearly doubled its cost to $8 billion. Developers cited “an unacceptable layer of uncertainty and anticipated delays,” and the potential for future legal challenges. Critics of the pipeline argued it would have been unnecessary, exacerbate climate change and also be “basically the poster child for environmental injustice. It disproportionately impacted Black, indigenous, and low-income communities.”

Court Shuts Down DAPL Until Environmental Review Completed: A federal judge ordered the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline to be emptied and shut down until an Environmental Impact Statement has been completed. The judge ruled that the disruption caused by shutting down the pipeline for an estimated 13 months it will take to complete the EIS were outweighed by the seriousness of the deficiencies in the Army Corps of Engineers’ initial environmental assessment. “Today is a historic day for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the many people who have supported us in the fight against the pipeline,” Mike Faith, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said, “This pipeline should have never been built here.”

SCOTUS Deals Blow To Keystone XL Pipeline: The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a lower court ruling barring the controversial Keystone XL pipeline from benefitting from a permit used to fast track pipeline construction. Canadian company TC Energy needs the permit to continue building the long-disputed pipeline across U.S. rivers and streams. Without it, the project that has been heavily promoted by President Donald Trump faces more delay just as work on it had finally begun this year following years of courtroom battles. Updates partially borrowed from Climate Nexus.

Here’s your 350PDX weekly update.

Actions

  • Sign the Open Letter – Support the Oregon Relief Fund : Deadline Today

    Over the past 5 weeks Black leaders and organizations across the state from Astoria to Ashland have been convening to construct a resiliency plan for the Black community in Oregon. The Oregon Cares Fund (TOCF) a fund for Black relief and resiliency was born. The Oregon Cares Fund is an ask for a $62 million targeted investment in the Black community from the CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Fund. It is a fund meant to provide the Black community with the resources it needs to weather the global health pandemic and consequent recession. It is a fund for Black people, Black-owned Businesses, and Black Community Based Organizations. Send a letter and share with your networks now

  • Support our Summer Appeal

    350PDX needs your support to help us continue our advocacy movement building efforts for long term resilience. If we raise $1300 by Friday we’ll be on track with our goal. Every contribution helps!

Updates

  • Accomplishments that Oregon protests for racial justice have achieved in the past three weeks

    KBOO has a great piece showing many of the accomplishments of the Black Lives Matter protests across Oregon, including Gresham, Clackamas, West Linn, Woodburn, as well as Portland.

  • In Portland:

    –6/8 Police Chief Jamie Resch resigns
    — 6/11 Don’t Shoot PDX is successful in a lawsuit to temporarily ban tear gas
    — 6/16 Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill announces early retirement; Mike Schmidt (elected in May) will replace him for the remainder of his term
    — 6/17 City Council cuts $15 million from the police budget
    —- Ending the Officers in schools program
    —- Pulling Portland police from Trimet fare enforcement
    —- Ending the Gun Violence Reduction Team (formerly the Gang Enforcement Team)
    –Protesters took down statues of slaveowners Thomas Jefferson and George Washington

  • In the State of Oregon:

    Governor Kate Brown calls a special session of the state legislature that began June 24th to focus on police accountability legislation. Proposals include:

    — Making it more difficult for arbitrators to overturn discipline of law enforcement officers
    — Creating a statewide database of police officials who have been disciplined
    — Putting the Oregon attorney general in charge of use-of-force investigations
    — Requiring officers to intervene and report when colleagues use unreasonable force, under so-called “duty to intervene” policies
    — Demilitarizing the police by prohibiting or limiting use of certain equipment, for example
    — Banning officers from using chokeholds.

  • Universal preschool is headed to the November ballot!

    “This is an historic achievement! In just five weeks, in a global pandemic, tens of thousands of you signed, and hundreds of you gathered signatures from friends, family, co-workers, fellow protesters in the struggle for Black lives, and other community members who want to fix Multnomah County’s broken preschool system.

    If approved by voters, Universal Preschool NOW would provide tuition-free, high-quality, culturally responsive and inclusive preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds in Multnomah County whose families choose it, starting in areas of the county with the highest concentrations of Black and Brown families and lower-income households,” the group said.

Resources

  • 350PDX COVID-19 Resources Page

    Check it out for the full list of resources for self care, community care, tackling bias/xenophobia, volunteer opportunities, and organizing during this time. Take a look here.

  • What Matters series, from Black Lives Matter

    What Matters combines documentary narrative with interviews to illuminate specific, timely issues, aiming to create safe dialogue to promote freedom, justice, and collective liberation. What Matters is a salve and a safe place where we can connect, learn, think freely, and transform the world. 6 episodes available so far!

  • Here’s how racism is disastrous for the climate – 350.org

    Only in a system in which some people are worth less than others is it possible to keep warming the planet and harming society’s most vulnerable groups. Part of a series on Racism in Brazil.

Opportunities​​​​

  • Portland Black Lives Matter Protests
    Every day @ across the city – details here

    There are protests, vigils, and marches every day and every night, with the exact location and details sometimes only becoming available a few hours before. So please check the PDX BLM events webpage for the day’s events, and show up!

  • July 8 Global Day of Protest: Junk Duterte’s Terror Law
    TONIGHT Weds July 8, 7:00PM – Colonel Summers Park

    Environmental activists in the Philippines experience some of the most severe and deadly repression in the world. In solidarity, please consider showing up to this event!. In response to the passing of Philippine President Duterte’s Anti-Terror Law (ATL) BAYAN, MALAYA and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines are calling for our members and allies to participate in the July 8 Global Day of Protest: Junk Duterte’s Terror Law. More info here.

  • Reclaiming Connection, Backing Frontline Leadership: Listening Tools for White Climate Activists
    TONIGHT Wednesdays July 8, 15, 22, 29. 5:00PM – 7:00PM – online

    Racism, genocide, and other oppressions are getting in the way of a united climate justice movement. We are making progress but still struggle with these divisions.  This interactive series introduces listening tools we can use to move against racism and to support each other as we take steps to broaden our movement, and to help each other improve our ability to form good working relationships across divisions of “race” and other oppressions.

    To register or inquire, please email Margaret at margaretjwj@gmail.com, or text 503-351-4192.

  • How White Supremacy Built Wall St
    TOMORROW Thurs July 9, 1:00PM, online – register here

    The United States became the wealthiest country in the world as a direct result of the land-theft and genocide of Indigenous people and the free labor of enslaved people. The sale of Black bodies (and of the cotton and cash crops they were forced to produce) was not only critical to the creation of Wall Street as a financial model, but it was also foundational to the development of modern capitalism itself.

    This webinar will explore the modern-day manifestations of that history and how the finance industry continues to use its disproportionate power to counter our struggles for racial, climate, gender, and economic justice.

    Join Stop the Money Pipeline and Take On Wall St. for this in-depth webinar on finance and systemic oppression. Facebook event here.

  • SW PDX Black Lives Matter Vigil
    Every Weds, 4:30PM – 5:30PM, SW 35th and Multnomah Blvd

    Southwest PDX family-friendly sign waving in Solidarity with Black Lives, every Wed. 4:30-5:30, SW 35th and Multnomah Blvd. with masks and physical spacing, ongoing until further notice. Plenty of extra signs to borrow. Co-sponsored by 350PDX SW Team, SW Action Group for Social Justice (SWAG) and Stand on Every Corner.

  • The History of the Police, Their Role in Society, & What a World Looks Like Without Them
    Wed July 15, 7:00PM – 10:00PM, online – info will be here

    Portland Rising Tide hosts this study session – “In this study session, we plan to dig into how and why the institution of the police was created, what they actually do in society vs. what we are told they do, and some examples of alternatives to the police.

    We will look at historical & contemporary examples of societies without police, data & statistics about police interactions with the public, and alternative institutions and the potential for them to replace the current institution of policing.”

 

Thank you all for the work that you do, stay safe, and we’re all in this together,
Ashley, Chris, Chuck, Dineen, Lucy – the 350PDX staff

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